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Los Angeles Times

As the Associated Press is no longer using the term illegal immigrant, it’s unclear whether other publications will follow suit.

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Kathleen Carroll, AP Senior Vice President, announced on Tuesday that the term ‘illegal immigrant’ would not be used anymore, calling it a "label." She noted that the AP prefers to label "behavior" rather than "people," writing that instead of using the term "schizophrenic," the AP now prefers saying that one is "diagnosed with schizophrenia." The new AP entry still categorizes illegal immigration, but recommends to avoid using "undocumented immigrant" or an alternative descriptor like "unauthorized" in place of "illegal immigrant."

"Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission," the AP's StyleBook suggests.

The San Antonio Express-News stopped using the term five years ago, and in 2010, the paper stopped using “immigrant” with a modifier altogether, Poynter reported. Rather, the paper would state that somebody had entered the US illegally, and cite a source.

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On Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times published graphic photographs of US soldiers posing with corpses and body parts of suicide bombers in Afghanistan, spurring a criminal investigation and condemnation of the activities by US government officials. The unsolicited photos, taken two years ago, were given to The Times by an anonymous soldier who said the photos demonstrated “a breakdown in leadership and discipline that he believed compromised the safety of the troops,” the article said.

After being shown the photos before publication, however, Pentagon officials such as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asked The Times not to publish the images, citing the potential risk of inciting violence against US troops by forces in Afghanistan, Poynter reported.

Ultimately, The Times editorial staff decided publishing the pictures was in the public interest, though the paper delayed publication as per request to allow the military time to increase protections for the soldiers shown in the photos, the article said.

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T.L. Caswell, formerly of the Los Angeles Times editing staff and current writer for Truthdig, recently published an article criticizing the Times' decision to run a realistic looking advertorial on the July 1st edition of their LATExtra. The publication, which has won 39 Pulitzer prizes, has the fourth largest circulation in the United States. Caswell, holding the newspaper in high esteem, expresses his sentiment that the Times is "among the greatest dailies of modern time." He adds, however, that "now, the good times are gone and, some will argue, the good Times is gone."

Facing bankruptcy, the Times, like many other publications, must make changes in order to survive. Caswell notes that is spite of staff cutbacks and several other adjustments, such as the introduction of the LATExtra section, have not "cured the ills" of the paper.

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The Los Angeles Times recently ran a convincing advertorial claiming that parts of Universal Studios had been destroyed by a mysterious attack, reports Los Angeles Observed. The ad, which was designed to fool readers in thinking it was a legitimate story being reported by LA Times, featured articles with headlines such as "Universal Studios Hollywood Partially Destroyed" and the absurd "Colossal Footprints Found on Beach."

The only indication that the advertorial was in fact fake was the word "advertisement" written in small red letters under the page title that announced the "LATExtra" section. Overall, considering that the advertisement exactly resembles a Times publication with only a tiny indication that it isn't, the advertisement seems to be specifically designed to mislead readers.

The LA Times advertorial has already created a good deal of backlash. Charles Apple, writing for Visual Editors, calls the ad a "four-page wrap in which advertising copy is masquerading as news - once again - in the once-respectable Los Angeles Times." Apple expresses further astonishment at the ad, quoting an "anonymous tipster" who reported that the ad was wrapped around the paper for home subscribers, making the ad the first part of the newspaper subscribers saw when they picked up the morning paper.

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The Los Angeles Times and Tribune Interactive have released a new iPad app, reports Editor&Publisher. The app, which costs $1.99 allows readers to keep up with the latest news with headlines, photos, tweets, and a feed of news from L.A. Now blog. According to the L.A. Times website, "users can browse through The Times' individual sections -- including each section's blogs -- and save stories and photos under the Favorites section for later viewing." Users can also use the app to share stories on Facebook, Twitter, and via e-mail.

Moreover, the Times has also launched the next generation of their app which features an adjustable interface for app users to customize how they receive Times content. Publisher Eddy Hartenstein said "Next month, our Hollywood Star Walk app will also go live, offering a robust interactive L.A. -centric experience for visitors to Southern California and entertainment junkies."

Producers of the app hope that it will allow users to be more interactive in how they receive news. According to Tribune Interactive President Marc Chase, the app "adapts to users preferences and makes content just a click away."

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The Tribune Company-owned Los Angeles Times will soon begin adding e-commerce links to selected stories and blog posts, as "both a reader service and a revenue opportunity for the company," editor Russ Stanton told staffers in a memo yesterday, LAObserved reported.

The e-commerce links will be highlighted in green with a double underline and no blue editorial link will be replaced with an e-commerce link. Each article or a post that includes an e-commerce green link will have a disclaimer at its foot stating: "Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites," Stanton stated in the memo, posted on LAObserved. "These post-publication links to sites such as Amazon and TicketNetwork will serve as both a reader service and a revenue opportunity for the company."

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The Walt Disney Company paid roughly $700,000 to the Los Angeles Times for a front page ad for its upcoming "Alice in Wonderland" movie, a source at the newspaper confirmed to The Wrap.

Readers of the LA Times last Friday morning had to flip to the second page to read the day's headlines, while a multicolored picture of Johnnie Depp, dressed as the Mad Hatter, obscured two stories on health care and the war in Afghanistan.

The editorial board at the LA Times opposed the ad, but the decision was ultimately made by the newspaper's business executives, according to anonymous sources at the paper who spoke to The New York Times.

"Obviously, it was not my decision," said Russ Stanton, the top editor at the newspaper.

"We worked very closely with Disney to come up with an exceptional and distinctive way to help them open 'Alice in Wonderland,'" said the Times' spokesman, John Conroy. "It was designed to create buzz, and to extend the film's already brilliant marketing campaign."

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The Los Angeles Times and the journalism school at the University of Southern California have announced they will collaborate on homicide reporting, the LA Times reports.

Under the arrangement, students from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism will write stories for The Times' Homicide Report blog. This will provide more content for the blog and give crime-reporting experience to the student journalists.

The Homicide Report has been re-launched this week, to feature a searchable database and an interactive map of homicides in LA County.

Assistant managing editor at the Times David Lauter highlighted the benefits of the partnership. "Since the first days of the Homicide Report in 2007, our goal has been to tell two stories about violent death in Los Angeles - the overall statistical portrayal of who dies, how they are killed and where, as well as the individual portraits of the human beings behind those numbers," he said. "Collaborating with USC will allow us to tell far more of those human stories and, at the same time, help develop the next generation of L.A. journalists."

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Hundreds of managers and executives at the bankrupt Tribune Company will get bonuses as part of a $45.6 million incentive program, under plans approved by a Delaware bankruptcy judge.

This is the largest such payment in at least 12 years and will be awarded to 720 managers. Judge Kevin Carey overruled objections by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild and the US bankruptcy trustee that the payment was too high and unwarranted, particularly considering that the company had frozen salaries for most staff. Carey found that many of the targets had already been met when he held hearings on the issue in September. The Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and other daily newspapers as well as 23 television stations. After filing for bankruptcy in December 2008, the company posted better than expected results at the end of last year, with an operating cashflow of almost $500 million. Of course, this figure is dwarfed by the 2007 cashflow of $1.2 billion.

The bonuses total close to 10% of 2009 operating cashflow. In the past decade, the company has not paid bonuses of more than 3.3% of operating cashflow, and in 2008 paid only 1.5% or $13.4 million. "There has never been an MIP like this one: an unprecedented payout of millions of dollars to a smaller number of executives," the union said in documents it filed this week.

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The World Editors Forum is the organization within the World Association of Newspapers devoted to newspaper editors worldwide. The Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org), launched in January 2004, is a WEF initiative designed to facilitate the diffusion of information relevant to newspapers and their editors.